THE  MODERN 
INTERPRETATION  OF  THE 
CALL  TO  THE  MINISTRY 


BOSWORTH 


THE  MODERN 


INTERPRETATION  OF  THE 
CALL  TO  THE  MINISTRY 


BY 

EDWARD  INCREASE  BOSWORTH 

DEAN  OF  OBERLIN  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


NEW  YORK 

Student  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 
124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street 
1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 

The  International  Committee  of  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Associations 


The  Claims  and  Opportunities 
of  the  Christian  Ministry 

A SERIES  OF  PAMPHLETS 
EDITED  BY  JOHN  R.  MOTT 


THE  MODERN  INTERPRETATION  OF 
THE  CALL  TO  THE  MINISTRY 

By  EDWARD  INCREASE  BOSWORTH 


1346 


SERIES  OF  PAMPHLETS  ON  THE 

Claims  and  Opportunities  of  the 
Christian  Ministry 


The  Claims  of  the  Ministry  on  Strong 
Men 

By  George  Angier  Gordon 
The  Right  Sort  of  Men  for  the  Ministry 
By  William  Fraser  McDowell 

The  Modern  Interpretation  of  the  Call 
to  the  Ministry 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 
The  Preparation  of  the  Modern  Minister 
By  Walter  William  Moore 
The  Minister  and  His  People 
By  Phillips  Brooks 

The  Minister  and  the  Community 
By  Woodrow  Wilson 

The  Call  of  the  Country  Church 
By  Arthur  Stephen  Hoyt 

The  Weak  Church  and  the  Strong  Man 
By  Edward  Increase  Bosworth 

The  Minister  as  Preacher 

By  Charles  Edward  Jefferson 


Letter  from  President  Roosevelt 
On  the  Call  of  the  Nation  for  Able  Men  to 
Lead  the  Forces  of  Christianity 


THE  MODERN  INTERPRETATION 
OF  A CALL  TO  THE  MINISTRY 

A “call”  to  the  ministry  is  usually  understood  to 
mean  a conviction  that  God  summons  a man  to  the 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry.  Can  the  so-called 
“modern  man”  believe  that  God  does  ever  “call” 
a man  to  the  ministry  or  to  any  other  life-work? 
And  if  God  does,  how  shall  a man  recognize  the 
summons?  In  what  form  will  it  come? 

Does  God  call  men  to  their  life-work? 

The  relation  of  God  to  the  aspirations  and  choices 
of  all  the  countless  individual  souls  in  His  universe 
is  too  large  a subject  for  discussion  here.  Jesus’ 
fundamental  teaching  regarding  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  may  be  assumed.  According  to  this  teaching, 
since  God  is  our  Father,  the  lives  of  His  children  can 
not  fail  to  be  supremely  interesting  to  Him.  Even 
lesser  things,  like  the  fluttering  fall  of  a short-lived 
bird,  interest  Him.  With  how  much  greater  con- 
5 


cern  will  He  view  the  enduring  life  of  His  children! 
He  will  have  preferences  regarding  their  choices. 
He  is  near  to  the  spirits  of  His  children,  and  will 
have  ways  of  making  His  preferences  known. 

“Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than 
hands  and  feet.”  Through  the  infinite  up-push 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  soul  of  a man,  which  we 
call  the  sense  of  duty,  God  can  make  known  the 
preferences  of  His  infinite  love  regarding  the 
choices  to  be  made  by  His  human  child.  Among 
the  more  important  of  these  choices  is  the  choice  of 
a life-work.  Therefore,  when  one  has  had  the  cour- 
age to  venture  out  unreservedly  after  Jesus  upon  the 
assumption  that  there  is  a Fatherly  God,  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  assuming  that  He  actually  summons  men 
to  their  life-work. 

Whatever  one’s  life-work  be,  he  must  feel  that  it 
has  been  undertaken  because  God  summons  him  to 
it.  He  decides  to  be  a lawyer  because  he  believes 
that  God  has  summoned  him  to  the  lawyer’s  career, 
in  order  that,  as  a lawyer,  he  may  be  the  champion 
of  fair  play  and  so  make  his  best  contribution  to  the 
on-coming  civilization  of  the  brotherly  sons  of  God. 
Or  he  becomes  a business  man,  because  he  believes 
6 


that  in  business  life  he  can  best  promote  the  interests 
of  the  civilization  of  friendly  workmen,  which  we 
call  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Whatever  any  man  does 
as  his  life-work  he  is  to  do  “in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,”  with  full  measure  of  Jesus’  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  the  New  Order.  In  our  day  the  minister 
may  no  longer  assume  for  himself  some  larger  share 
of  God’s  interest  than  is  granted  to  other  men.  The 
young  minister  simply  waited  among  his  fellows,  in 
the  great  assignment  of  opportunity,  for  God  to  call 
him  to  his  life-work.  God  called  him  to  the  minis- 
try, and  the  same  God  called  his  friend  to  the  law. 

Most  of  us  see  the  logical  necessity  of  believing 
that  God  does  direct  men  in  the  choice  of  a life- 
work.  Our  difficulty  comes  in  the  effort  to  recog- 
nize God’s  call.  How  shall  an  undergraduate  find 
out  whether  or  not  God  wills  that  the  Christian  min- 
istry shall  be  his  life-work? 

How  shall  a man  recognize  the  call  of  God  to  the 
Christian  ministry? 

If  the  Almighty  God  made  his  preferences  abso- 
lutely and  instantaneously  clear,  our  frail  personal- 
ities would  be  so  overwhelmed  as  to  have  no  chance 


7 


for  the  deliberate  reflection  and  initiative  that  are 
requisite  for  character.  We  are  not  to  be  surprised, 
therefore,  by  finding  that  God  generally  makes  the 
discovery  of  His  will  regarding  the  details  of  conduct 
a somewhat  slow  and  character-making  process. 
Our  concern  is  to  pass  through  the  process  with  such 
industry  and  conscientiousness  in  investigation  and 
reflection  as  surely  to  be  better  men  at  the  end  of  the 
process  than  at  its  beginning. 

i.  In  the  process  of  finding  out  whether  or  not 
God  calls  a man  to  the  Christian  ministry,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  gain  information  regarding  the  opportunities 
for  usefulness  afforded  by  the  Christian  ministry. 
One  must  know  what  the  Christian  ministry  really 
is.  He  must  see  with  some  clearness  the  real  con- 
tribution made  by  the  Christian  minister  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community.  It  is  beyond  the  province 
of  the  present  discussion  to  describe  this  contribu- 
tion in  detail.  In  brief  it  is  threefold: 

The  minister  is  the  one  to  whom  all  classes  and 
ages  in  the  community  may  feel  that  they  have  a 
right  to  come  for  help  in  all  sorts  of  emergency. 
Men  in  other  professions  prepare  to  meet  only  a cer- 
tain class  of  needs,  or  the  needs  of  a certain  class. 

8 


But  to  the  minister  anyone  may  come  for  any  kind 
of  help.  He  is  the  minister.  If  he  can  not  give  the 
help  needed — as  in  very  many  cases  he  can  not — he 
will,  in  Christ’s  name,  try  to  find  some  one  who  can. 
He  will  himself  always  be  ready  to  give  personal 
help  of  one  vital  and  fundamentally  important 
kind,  help  in  character-making.  He  is  the  specialist 
in  character. 

The  minister  is  the  one  who  preaches  what  we 
commonly  call  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  pub- 
lic on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  at  other  times  when  he 
finds  groups  of  men  ready  for  his  great  message. 
The  public  church  service  is  to  be  the  centre  of  in- 
spiration for  the  life  of  the  community.  Men  and 
women  who  are  doing  the  work  of  industrial,  busi- 
ness, and  domestic  life,  come  there  weary  and 
heavy  laden,  but  go  away  spiritually  invigorated. 
All  who  are  engaged  in  specific  forms  of  philan- 
thropic and  religious  work,  social  settlement  work- 
ers and  secretaries  of  the  Young  Men’s  and  Young 
Women’s  Christian  Associations,  should  be  able  to 
find  there,  in  the  clear  vision  of  Christ  and  His  Gos- 
pel, fresh  inspiration  for  another  week’s  work. 

The  minister  is  the  leader  of  the  organization 
9 


called  a church  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  studies  to  se- 
cure the  development  of  the  life  of  all  its  members, 
young  and  old.  He  organizes  its  activities  and  re- 
lates them  to  the  progress  of  Christianity  in  the 
world.  He  brings  it  into  contact  with  the  life  of 
the  community  at  any  point  where  such  contact 
will  help  every  man  to  a better  chance  for  all  good 
things.  He  discerns  opportunity  in  the  community 
for  enterprises,  vitally  religious  in  their  character, 
and  large  enough  in  their  dimensions  to  enlist  the 
enthusiastic  personal  effort  of  the  gifted  laymen  of 
his  church,  who  are  accustomed  to  leadership  in 
the  large  undertakings  of  business  and  professional 
life  in  the  community.  All  the  educational,  social, 
ethical,  and  religious  interests  of  the  community  ap- 
peal to  him.  He  not  only  preaches  the  Gospel  but 
he  is  also  the  leader  of  his  church  in  the  application 
of  the  Gospel  to  the  life  of  the  community. 

The  work  of  the  minister,  so  conceived,  is  large 
in  its  scope  and  diversified  in  its  opportunity.  The 
man  who  is  trying  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  he  is 
called  to  the  ministry  will  surely  make  a thorough, 
conscientious  study  of  the  contribution  to  be  made 
to  the  community  by  the  minister  and  his  church. 


io 


In  doing  this  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  shake 
off  the  memory  of  some  church,  whose  minister  has 
not  been  alive  to  his  opportunity,  and  whose  contri- 
bution to  the  welfare  of  the  community  is  so  meager 
and  indistinct  as  to  make  his  ministry  decidedly  un- 
attractive to  an  earnest  man;  or  the  memory  of  some 
minister  “called”  to  the  ministry  by  no  higher  au- 
thority than  the  demand  of  his  own  selfishness,  to 
whom  the  ministry  is  simply  a profession  which  he 
entered  with  the  hope  of  making  himself  a reputa- 
tion, and  to  whom  the  pulpit  is  simply  a place  for  the 
display  of  “platform  gifts.”  These  men  are  the  rare 
exceptions.  There  are  thousands  of  men  who  are 
finding  the  ministry  to  be  a great  opportunity  into 
which  they  are  throwing  themselves  with  unselfish 
enthusiasm  and  with  increasing  satisfaction.  Here  is 
the  recent  clear  testimony  of  one  of  them,  Dr.  Will- 
iam Allen  Knight:  “In  numberless  American  com- 
munities are  pastors  who  are  successful,  trusted,  free 
from  undue  restraints  in  thought  and  utterance,  sure 
of  kindness  and  fair  treatment  and  magnanimity  on 
the  part  of  their  parishioners  as  a whole,  and  above 
all  happy  in  the  certainty  of  vital  relations  with 
poor  and  rich,  youth  and  adult,  men  and  women, 


1 1 


church  and  town.  They  have  adversities  to  be  sure, 
as  most  men  in  responsible  positions  do,  but  they 
face  them  as  all  men  must  who  make  up 

‘The  host  that  heeds  not  hurt  nor  scar 

Led  by  the  bright  and  morning  star.’  ” 

These  men  are  not  found  exclusively  in  great 
city  churches,  but  in  village  and  country  churches, 
which  present  opportunities  as  vitally  connected  with 
the  welfare  of  the  nation  as  are  those  of  the  city 
pastorate,  and  fully  as  interesting  when  once  they 
are  realized. 

Some  of  these  successful  men  should  be  consulted 
and  pains  be  taken  to  get  their  point  of  view.  Biog- 
raphies of  successful  ministers  should  be  read,  such 
as  Allen’s  biography  of  Phillips  Brooks,  either  the 
longer  or  shorter  edition,  Lyman  Abbott’s  “Henry 
Ward  Beecher,”  Munger’s  “Life  of  Horace  Bush- 
nell.”  There  are  also  good  books  describing  the 
modem  minister’s  opportunity.  Perhaps  the  most 
comprehensive  and  thorough  of  these  is  Washington 
Gladden’s  recently  published  book,  “The  Christian 
Pastor  and  the  Working  Church.”  Less  technical 
and  more  inspirational  in  its  type  is  Lyman  Abbott’s 


SI 


12 


“The  Christian  Ministry.”  An  exceedingly  inter- 
esting report  of  personal  experience  is  W.  S.  Rains- 
ford’s  “A  Preacher’s  Story  of  His  Work.” 

In  the  process  of  gaining  information  about  the 
opportunity  afforded  by  the  ministry,  account  must 
be  taken  of  the  demand  for  ministers.  Whether  or 
not  one  should  consider  himself  called  to  the  minis- 
try depends  not  simply  upon  the  value  of  the  minis- 
ter’s contribution,  but  also  upon  the  number  who 
are  preparing  to  make  that  contribution.  An  earn- 
est man  wishes  to  find  where  he  is  really  needed.  He 
wishes  to  do  some  valuable  service  which  is  not  likely 
to  be  done  unless  he  does  it.  He  does  not  wish  to 
bring  his  re-enforcement  to  a point  on  the  line  which 
is  already  amply  manned,  but  to  a point  where  re- 
enforcement is  demanded.  It  is  an  open  secret  that, 
while  some  occupations  are  over-crowded,  for  some 
decades  the  number  of  strong  men  entering  the 
ministry  has  been  insufficient.  This  may  result 
in  forcing  small  neighboring  churches  of  different  de- 
nominations to  combine,  and  in  securing  to  the 
minister  a clearer  field  for  work  and  more  adequate 
financial  recognition.  But  when  allowance  has  been 
made  for  such  desirable  results,  the  fact  remains 
i3 


that  the  Church  is  likely  to  be  confronted  by  a 
very  serious  situation  twenty,  or  even  ten,  years 
hence. 

An  insufficient  or  an  inefficient  ministry  means  a 
weakened  Church,  and  a weakened  Church  means 
weakness  in  all  philanthropic  organizations,  for  they 
draw  their  strength  and  inspiration  directly  or  indi- 
rectly from  the  Church.  A recognized  leader  in  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  has  said  that  if 
the  Church  should  lose  its  vitality  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  would  become  extinct.  It  is 
not  in  place  here  to  discuss  in  detail  the  demand  for 
ministers.  It  is  simply  proper  here  to  say  that  the 
matter  must  be  investigated  by  the  man  who  is  try- 
ing to  ascertain  whether  or  not  he  is  called  to  the 
ministry.  He  can  enter  into  correspondence  with 
suitable  authorities  in  the  body  of  Christians  to  which 
he  belongs,  and  easily  ascertain  from  them  what  are 
the  exact  facts  in  his  own  church. 

2.  When  a man  has  investigated  the  nature  of  the 
contribution  made  by  the  minister  to  the  welfare  of 
the  community  and  sees  its  value,  he  must  try  to  see 
whether  he  can  make  this  contribution,  whether  he 
has  the  qualities  requisite  for  success  in  the  ministry. 


14 


Here  again  the  limits  of  the  subject  prevent  a de- 
tailed discussion  of  what  these  qualities  are.  A bare 
enumeration  of  them  would  include  the  following: 
convictions  born  of  experience  regarding  the  funda- 
mental truths  of  the  Christian  religion;  such  quick 
strong  sympathy  with  men  as  will  transform  these 
convictions  into  message  and  action,  into  a passion 
for  character,  into  a Pauline  resolution  “by  all  means 
to  save  some”;  sufficient  skill  in  public  speech  to 
command  attention  to  the  message;  some  adminis- 
trative ability;  readiness  to  consider  suggestions  and 
to  profit  by  friendly  and  unfriendly  criticism;  com- 
mon sense;  and  a capacity  for  hard  work. 

As  a man  looks  for  these  qualities  in  himself  he 
must  not  expect  to  find  them  all  fully  developed. 
He  cannot  expect,  for  instance,  to  possess  positive, 
well-developed  convictions  upon  all  points  of  theol- 
ogy, for  such  convictions  grow  out  of  a religious  ex- 
perience and  it  takes  time  to  produce  such  an  experi- 
ence. Neither  can  he  expect  at  once  to  produce  two 
sermons  a week.  The  ability  to  do  this  apparently 
impossible  thing  will  come  in  time,  as  it  has  come  to 
thousands  of  men  no  more  gifted  than  he  is.  He 
must  be  content  if  he  sees  only  the  encouraging  be- 
15 


ginnings  of  the  qualities  which  make  for  success 
when  developed. 

Furthermore,  he  must  not  require  in  himself  qual- 
ities requisite  for  the  success  of  a Beecher  or  a Spur- 
geon. We  are  most  of  us  simply  average  men,  cap- 
able of  an  average  man’s  success  in  any  calling.  A 
man  must  not  turn  away  from  the  ministry  because 
he  does  not  find  himself  possessed  of  qualities  that 
would  yield  him  the  success  of  a Spurgeon,  any  more 
than  he  would  turn  away  from  the  law  because  he 
could  not  be  a Webster,  or  from  the  work  of  an  elec- 
trician because  he  could  not  be  an  Edison.  The 
great  work  of  the  world  in  all  occupations  is  done  by 
average  men. 

In  trying  to  ascertain  his  fitness  for  the  ministry  he 
will  sometimes  be  helped  by  the  opinions  of  him 
formed  by  those  who  know  him  best.  In  consider- 
ing the  opinions  of  his  friends,  however,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  be  sure  that  they  are  Christian  men  who  are 
themselves  controlled  by  the  supreme  motives  of  the 
religious  life. 

Perhaps  the  very  best  way  to  ascertain  his  fitness 
for  the  work  is  to  try  it  in  some  preliminary  and 
temporary  form.  Most  college  students  have  oppor- 
16 


tunity  to  engage  in  mission  work,  either  in  the  city 
mission  or  in  the  country  schoolhouse,  in  Christian 
Endeavor  work,  in  Sunday  school  teaching,  or  in  the 
work  connected  with  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  As- 
sociation. In  some  of  these  ways  a man  may  see 
whether  he  has  not  some  of  the  qualities  requisite  for 
success  in  the  ministry.  Many  college  juniors  and 
seniors  are  sufficiently  mature  to  offer  themselves  to 
a home  missionary  superintendent  for  a summer  of 
work  in  the  newer  states,  or  in  the  needy  districts  of 
some  of  the  older  states.  Many  who  come  to  the 
theological  seminary  today  come  from  a year  or  more 
of  preaching  after  graduation  from  college.  There 
may  be  some  objections  to  this  practice,  but  the  men 
who  come  to  the  seminary  from  such  an  experience 
generally  know  that  they  are  called  to  the  ministry, 
and  they  are  eagerly  appreciative  of  all  that  a mod- 
ern seminary  curriculum  offers. 

By  such  practical  testing  of  himself  in  some  pre- 
liminary and  temporary  form  of  work,  a man  also 
puts  himself  in  the  way  of  recognizing  God’s  call,  as 
many  men  have  recognized  it,  namely,  through  provi- 
dential circumstances.  Some  little  church  or  mission 
finds  in  him  what  it  wants,  lays  divinely  guided 
*7 


hands  upon  him,  and  decisively  draws  him  into  the 
ministry. 

3.  Closely  connected  with  what  has  been  already 
said  about  the  way  to  recognize  the  call  of  God  is  lis- 
tening to  the  inner  voice.  Many  men  in  the  process 
of  doing  what  has  already  been  suggested  are  pretty 
sure  to  hear  the  voice  of  God  calling  them  into  the 
ministry.  When  they  see  the  work  needing  to  be 
done  and  feel  in  themselves  the  ability,  with  God’s 
help,  to  do  it,  the  sense  of  obligation  comes,  and  the 
question  is  settled.  Some,  however,  are  so  consti- 
tuted as  to  see  clearly  the  contribution  made  to  the 
welfare  of  the  community  by  a half  dozen  occupa- 
tions, no  one  of  which  perhaps,  to  their  minds,  stands 
out  as  pre-eminently  useful.  After  they  have  done 
the  best  they  can  to  make  a discriminating  inventory 
of  their  qualifications,  they  seem  to  have  no  special 
bent,  and  to  be  about  as  well  adapted  to  the  demands 
of  one  as  another  of  several  occupations.  To  such 
an  one  there  often  comes  the  slowly  forming  convic- 
tion, which  he  cannot  justify  by  a clear  course  of 
reasoning,  that  God  would  have  him  in  the  ministry. 
As  he  prays  to  God  month  after  month  for  guidance, 
some  special  feature  of  the  minister’s  opportunity, 
18 


or  the  community’s  demand  for  ministers,  takes  hold 
of  him  and  becomes  a decisive  consideration.  What 
at  first  was  a tentative  opinion  or  a wavering  feeling 
becomes,  as  he  prays,  a more  and  more  settled  con- 
viction, and  when  the  time  comes  for  action  he  finds 
himself  ready,  and  at  rest  in  his  purpose  to  become 
a Christian  minister.  Perhaps  he  enters  a theologi- 
cal seminary  before  he  has  fully  reached  this  point, 
because  it  seems  simply  probable  that  God  would 
have  him  in  the  ministry.  After  a year  in  the  sem- 
inary and  especially  after  a summer  in  home  mission 
work,  he  is  reasonably  sure  of  himself  and  ready  to 
go  on.  Some  whose  success  in  the  ministry  has  given 
most  satisfactory  evidence  that  God  really  did  call 
them  to  it,  have  entered  it  in  response  to  a slowly  de- 
veloping sense  of  call  like  that  just  described. 

In  all  the  process  by  which  a man  tries  to  recog- 
nize the  call  of  God,  the  main  thing  is  the  honest 
heart.  As  he  lays  the  matter  before  God  in  prayer 
month  after  month,  he  must  repeatedly  say  with 
sincerity:  “Whatever  be  my  life-work,  I will  enter 
upon  it  because  I believe  it  to  be  the  one  in  which 
I can  make  my  largest  contribution  to  human  wel- 
T9 


fare  as  Jesus  conceived  it.  I may  not  have  much 
ability,  but  what  I have  I will  apply  where  it  will 
count  most  for  human  welfare  as  Jesus  conceived  it.” 
He  will  not  enter  the  ministry  for  the  sake  of  the  op- 
portunity afforded  by  it  to  gratify  intellectual  tastes 
and  to  secure  quick  social  recognition.  Neither  will 
he  turn  away  from  it  because  it  affords  no  opportu- 
nity for  making  money  and  getting  the  things  that 
money  can  buy.  The  ministry  has  its  hardships  of 
course.  A great  opportunity  anywhere  almost  al- 
ways involves  correspondingly  great  difficulties,  and 
calls  for  correspondingly  strenuous  endeavor,  and 
glad  sacrifice  of  lesser  interests.  But  it  brings  with 
it  correspondingly  ample  rewards.  To  the  man  who 
hears  his  Lord’s  call  to  the  Christian  ministry  and 
heartily  obeys  it,  there  come  the  unique  and  unex- 
pected satisfactions  that  belong  to  those  only  who  do 
their  Lord’s  will  at  a cost.  In  very  few  occupations 
can  men  win  the  tribute  paid  by  John  Watson  to  the 
pastor  of  his  youth:  “People  turned  to  him  as  by  in- 
stinct in  their  joys  and  sorrows;  men  consulted  him 
in  the  crises  of  life,  and,  as  they  lay  a-dying,  com- 
mitted their  wives  and  children  to  his  care.  He  was 
a head  to  every  widow,  and  a father  to  the  orphans, 


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and  the  friend  of  all  lowly,  discouraged,  unsuccessful 
souls.  Ten  miles  away  people  did  not  know  his 
name,  but  his  own  congregation  regarded  no  other, 
and  in  the  Lord’s  presence  it  was  well  known,  it  was 
often  mentioned;  when  he  laid  down  his  trust,  and 
arrived  on  the  other  side,  many  whom  he  had  fed 
and  guided,  and  restored  and  comforted  till  he  saw 
them  through  the  gates,  were  waiting  to  receive  their 
shepherd-minister,  and  as  they  stood  round  him  be- 
fore the  Lord,  he,  of  all  men,  could  say  without 
shame,  ‘Behold,  Lord,  thine  under-shepherd,  and  the 
flock  thou  didst  give  me.’”1 

Such  a minister  hears  the  call  of  God  sounding 
with  increasing  distinctness  in  his  soul  through  all 
the  years  of  his  responding  ministry,  until  summons 
merges  into  plaudit,  and  he  enters  fully  into  that  joy 
of  his  Lord  which,  in  lesser  measure,  has  long  been 
the  habit  of  his  soul.  If  one  can  justly  convince  him- 
self that  the  Almighty  God  is  actually  calling  him 
to  the  Christian  ministry,  he  has  reason  to  rise  and, 
with  the  vision  of  the  ministering  Son  of  Man  before 
him,  bless  God. 

1 “ The  Cure  of  Souls,”  p.  242. 


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